Ed Chamberlin joins ITV as racing presenter

Ed Chamberlin has been confirmed as the main presenter of ITV’s horse racing coverage from 2017.

Ending weeks of speculation, the broadcaster has announced that Chamberlin will front ITV’s exclusive live free-to-air broadcasts of race meetings throughout the season, across both ITV and ITV4, starting from January 2017.

He joins from Sky Sports, where he has spent much of his broadcasting career, building up a wealth of experience in covering major sporting events, primarily Premier League football since 2011.

Chamberlin has been the presenter of the network’s flagship live Premier League football output for the past five years, including its popular Super Sunday and Monday Night Football programmes.

But he has made no secret that horse racing is his lifelong passion, a subject which he had regularly wrote about on the Sky Sports and Sky Bet websites, and prior to entering the media he worked for bookmaker Ladbrokes.

Commenting on his move to ITV, Chamberlin said: “I am absolutely thrilled to be joining ITV and to be given this great opportunity.

“These are exciting times with ITV returning as the home of British racing from 1st January 2017.

“I had 16 years at Sky full of great memories and brilliant people. It was hard to leave but this opportunity was too good to miss.”

Thank you for all the kind messages. I'm thrilled to be joining @ITV & really looking forward to the new challenge. Exciting times ahead

Ed’s appointment follows the announcement at the start of this year of ITV’s exclusive new four-year deal to show horse racing on terrestrial television, taking over from Channel 4, with the new deal takes effect from the start of 2017.

This will encompass live broadcasts of almost 100 days of racing each year across its main ITV channel and ITV4, in addition to a magazine preview programme broadcast each Saturday morning on ITV4.

Niall Sloane, ITV Director of Sport, said: “Ed’s skill as a presenter of live sport is matched only by his love of racing, so we’re delighted to bring someone with his attributes on board as we build up to our coverage starting in the new year.”

ITV has committed to showing a minimum of 34 racing fixtures on its main channel, including the Cheltenham Festival, Grand National, Epsom Derby and Royal Ascot, alongside 60 days of fixtures on ITV4.

The remainder of ITV’s racing team has not yet been announced, but is due to be confirmed following its coverage of Euro 2016 this summer, with some of the names in the frame for high-profile roles including Matt Chapman, Oli Bell and Francesca Cumani.

The racing deal adds to ITV’s portfolio of sports rights, which includes UEFA Euro 2016, FIFA World Cup, Six Nations rugby, Tour de France, French Open tennis, exclusive live coverage of the England football team’s qualification campaign for the 2018 World Cup, plus Champions League and Europa League highlights.